Things I never thought I'd search on Youtube

Once upon a time, Arizona taught high school math. I have to believe he was very good at it, because he taught me to mountain bike with wonderful positivity. I remember gems such as: "Awesome climb, sweetie! Just keep breathing and you'll be able to feel your face in no time" and "Way to fall! You're getting so much better at tucking in your hands and leading with your helmet." (I jest. But only a little.) Furthermore, I've had the pleasure to getting to know several of his former students as friends, and they're unanimous in his praise. (Which I get to pass along to him because he's allergic to Facebook.) 

Back in the day, another of his students gifted him with a mix CD of cool music, and I must say, the kid had taste beyond his years. Said CD has traveled with Arizona for more than a decade, and the songs now reside on our familial iTunes playlist under said student's name. Which isn't half bad as a legacy goes, don't you think? 

The problem arises, however, when we want to identify the artists and see if we like anything else they've done--it's just not practical to search for '(Insert student's name) Track # 7'. So we tend to pull up Youtube on the TV and search for random lyric snippets. This works better than you'd think, and even when it doesn't work, it's entertaining.

Arizona: Search for 'never going to give you up.'

Me: Because that's not at all generic. (Types it in.) Not Rick Astley. Nope, not that one either. (Scrolls down.) Maybe Butthole Gorillas? The name has the right level of grunge.

Arizona: Try it. (Listens. Winces.) Nope. Okay, let's go back for more lyrics. 

(We do. We type in another line. Up pops the search results.)

In chorus: Linkin Park! Duh. Of course.

I realize there are more sophisticated ways of doing this, like actual lyric search engines and apps that listen to the song for you and pull up reams of information, including the title, artist, date, copyright, and what the songwriter had for breakfast last Tuesday. But we like the Youtube theory, and it's remarkably effective. 

Granted, our Youtube playlist has gotten increasingly random with the addition of Baby Wallaby, who is 10 weeks old today, and loves to rock out to loud music, the more repetitive and the harder the bass, the better. If you had asked Arizona or me a year ago whether we'd ever dance around the house to Katy Perry or that "Geronimo" song, we would've laughed our butts off. 'Nuff said.

While the current hits are easy to find, some of Wallaby's other favorites have required more sophisticated Youtube searches, like "repeated loop of the Sprint narwhal song" (good luck forgetting THAT). And then there was the other day …

Me: (singing randomly to baby)

Arizona: (starts to sing along from the other room, then asks) Is that a real song?

Me: (considers it) I don't have a clue. I guess my mom used to sing it to me. It could be the chorus from something real, I guess.

Arizona: Look and see.

Me: Seriously? You want me to search Youtube for 'ooh eee ooh ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang'? 

Arizona: Why not?

And you know what? It worked, and ... It really is a song, and we've been dancing to it ever since.

Flock of Seagulls hairdo baby approves of this playlist. What's on yours?